Absolutely amazing!
As I think through the reason that this perspective change is so powerful, I find that the key issue is how I am drawing my significance. We are all created by God with 2 critical needs. We have a critical need to be loved and a critical need to have impact or significance. These are not optional. If they are not met in some way, we begin to contemplate suicide.
Men I understand tend to be more concerned about their significance and that is certainly the case for me. To allow my significance to simply float out in the ether is not possible. Though the "thing" on which I may base my significance may change, I realize that I am always basing my significance on something.
Another way of looking at this is how I view myself...my identity. My identity is always going to be tied into my significance. If I see myself first as a physician, then odds are pretty good that I'm drawing most of my significance from my role as a physician. If I see myself first as a son of the living God, then my significance rests upon that which is eternal and unchanging.
I have a choice...do I want to base my significance on something that changes and is affected by the world, or do I want to base it upon a Person who never changes and who can't be changed? It's rather obvious which it should be...but it raises the question of why I can't maintain that position. Why is it that I can start a day basing my significance on who I am in the Lord, and within 2 hours...I've allowed it to be placed on something temporary and volatile? It's easy to know when that happens since that's when emotions can be elicited in ways that are not always good.
As I think through the reason that this perspective change is so powerful, I find that the key issue is how I am drawing my significance. We are all created by God with 2 critical needs. We have a critical need to be loved and a critical need to have impact or significance. These are not optional. If they are not met in some way, we begin to contemplate suicide.
Men I understand tend to be more concerned about their significance and that is certainly the case for me. To allow my significance to simply float out in the ether is not possible. Though the "thing" on which I may base my significance may change, I realize that I am always basing my significance on something.
Another way of looking at this is how I view myself...my identity. My identity is always going to be tied into my significance. If I see myself first as a physician, then odds are pretty good that I'm drawing most of my significance from my role as a physician. If I see myself first as a son of the living God, then my significance rests upon that which is eternal and unchanging.
I have a choice...do I want to base my significance on something that changes and is affected by the world, or do I want to base it upon a Person who never changes and who can't be changed? It's rather obvious which it should be...but it raises the question of why I can't maintain that position. Why is it that I can start a day basing my significance on who I am in the Lord, and within 2 hours...I've allowed it to be placed on something temporary and volatile? It's easy to know when that happens since that's when emotions can be elicited in ways that are not always good.
That is the real question...how do we maintain our identity in the Lord...or another way of phrasing it...an eternal perspective in the midst of personal attacks or the stress of a difficult day? That will be the topic of many posts to come!
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